Leadership. Excellence. Responsibility.

The teaching profession's finest qualities are displayed in the
way we regulate our own profession.

by Doug Wilson

Self-regulation in the public interest brings many benefits to Canadians - quality
public education and health care, a fair system of justice, safe environments,
reliable standards for various professional services.

As part of the governing structure in Ontario, self-regulation predates
Confederation - the legal profession was granted self-governing powers
in Upper Canada in 1797.

Today, there are 37 self-regulating professional bodies in Ontario and
each operates by law in the public interest. Teachers, lawyers, doctors,
nurses, veterinarians, architects, engineers, chartered accountants and
all other self-regulated professions are legally required to put the
public interest first.

Yet despite how central this ideal of the public interest is to self-regulation,
many professionals and members of the public - including teachers - mistake
its meaning and intent.

To understand what self-regulation in the public interest means for
the teaching profession, let's understand what it does not mean.

The College has a duty to serve and protect
the public interest.

Ontario College of Teachers Act

It doesn't mean that the public determines working conditions for teachers
or that the public tells principals how to run schools. Just as there
is a distinction to be made between individual teachers and the teaching
profession, the public interest is distinct from the interests of members
of the public.

Teachers, accustomed to representation by federations, sometimes believe
that their regulatory body should represent them in a similar way. That
teachers elect representatives to the College's governing Council tends
to reinforce this misunderstanding.

Although it may seem counterintuitive in our tradition of representative
democracy, Council members are elected to represent the whole profession,
not the interests of their particular constituency.

Similarly, members appointed by the government to the College Council
are not there to follow government directives or represent private interests.
They too are charged with ensuring that the teaching profession develops
to serve a quality public education system.

The public interest is the common interest.

The public interest is the common interest among elected and appointed
Council members. Ideally, all Council members come to the table to work
together to make decisions that support broad societal objectives.

Self-regulation of the teaching profession in the public interest assumes
that teachers have the knowledge and the expertise to set standards and
to judge the conduct of members of their profession on behalf of the
public. Self-regulation means that teachers' interests and the public
interest will often coincide and that decisions made that benefit the
public will also benefit and be strongly supported by individual teachers.

Self-regulation helps the profession build and sustain public trust
by making the profession accountable for the standards it sets and for
those it certifies and disciplines. The voices of parents and community
members on our governing Council help to ensure that the teaching profession
responds to the needs of a diverse student population.

The Royal Commission on Learning report - For the
Love of Learning,
1995 - recommended that

a professional, self-regulatory body for teaching, the Ontario College
of Teachers, be established . The college should be responsible for determining
professional standards, certification, and accreditation of teacher education
programs. Professional educators should form a majority of the membership
of the college, with substantial representation of non-educators from
the community at large.

Almost a decade later, that vision holds. Ontario's Minister of Education
Gerard Kennedy stressed the importance of the public interest in self-regulation
when he spoke to the College Council in June. "The College exists for
one reason and it is not for teachers' interest. It can't be," he said. "The
College is a delegation of authority and responsibility from the government
for the public interest, and only a select number of professions are
capable of sustaining that."